Landing
Your first day
Three things sort out the rest of the week, and all of them are easier on the day you arrive than on the day after.
Do the big shop first
The large Sklavenitis near the airport is the biggest supermarket on the island and the easiest stop straight after you pick up the car. Everything nearer the beaches is a small shop at holiday prices. Coffee, water, breakfast, wine and something for the barbecue, and you are set.
Take the car
Buses run the south coast every ten to fifteen minutes and cost a couple of euros, which covers the busy beaches nicely. They do not reach the north coast, the hills, or most of what is on this page.
Carry some cash
Cards work almost everywhere in town. The beach tavernas, the small cantinas and the winery are happier with notes.
Dinner
Where to eat
Skiathos has around eighty restaurants and most of them are fine. These are the ones we go back to.
Out near the villas
Ten minutes from the house, and the reason people stop driving into town.
Tarsanas
Kechria BeachFish on the sand since 1981, brought in by the boats that morning. If you eat one meal outside town, make it this one.
The fish is priced by the kilo, so agree the weight before it goes on the grill. The last stretch is a dirt track, and many hire car contracts do not cover unsealed roads.
Ligaries Beach Taverna
Ligaries BeachA quiet pebble bay and the catch of the day over charcoal. Simple, and all the better for it.
In town
One honest note. The restaurants directly on the waterfront strip are fine rather than special. Walk one block back and the cooking gets better and the bill gets smaller.
Bakaliko
Ammoudia, five minutes from townFitted out like an old grocer’s shop, with tables at the water and the town roofline across the bay. One of the highest rated places on the island, and deservedly busy.
Order the shrimp kritharoto or the grilled octopus. Book in July and August.
Kabourelias Ouzeri
Old PortWhere you go for ouzo and a table full of small fish plates. Order a carafe, let them keep bringing mezedes, and give it two hours.
Mesogia
PlakesGrilling over charcoal since 1923. Baked aubergine, octopus, nothing that needs explaining.
A courtyard garden under vine leaves, candlelit, only a handful of tables. The nicest dinner in town without being a fuss.
Book a few days ahead in high season.
For the view
Worth booking for one night of the trip, and worth asking for the right table.
Panorama
Above Skiathos TownUp on the hillside, with the whole town and bay laid out underneath you. Ask for a table on the edge of the terrace.
Agnadio
Hillside above townLooks over the town, the port and the runway all at once. Time dinner with the afternoon arrivals and you get a show with it.
The Windmill
Highest point of the old townAn 1880s windmill restored into a small terrace restaurant. Sunset here is the one people photograph and then talk about later.
Opens in the evening only, and reservations are essential.
A day at the beach club
One address, and a different kind of day out to everything above.
Baracoa Beach Club
Tzaneria Beach, bus stop 12Not a town restaurant, and worth being clear about that. It is a beach club on Tzaneria, one of the calm, sheltered bays on the south coast, with sunbeds and cabanas down at the water and a proper kitchen behind them. Mediterranean cooking from Vasilis Bollos, plus a bar, a small boutique and massages on the sand.
Sunbeds and tables are by reservation, so message them before you drive over. It works best as a whole day rather than a quick lunch stop.
When nobody wants a long dinner
Two places that have saved more evenings here than any of the restaurants above.
Time Out
Papadiamanti streetGyros on the main pedestrian street, and the one people on the island actually queue for. Pork gyros in a pita, a few euros, eaten walking.
Open late, which makes it the obvious stop on the way home from the bars.
Maria’s Pizza
Near the Town HallHandmade pizza and pasta in a courtyard off the town streets, going for years and still the family answer on a night nobody wants a long dinner. The stuffed garlic bread is the thing people come back for.
There is a similarly named place nearby. This is the one by the Town Hall.
And one afternoon
If you book one thing before you come, make it this.
Parissis Winery
Up in the hillsThe island vineyard, small and family run, planted with Greek varieties and making somewhere around twenty five thousand bottles a year. The tasting finishes looking out over the port.
Call ahead and they will set a time with you. Take a taxi rather than the car, the access road is not one to drive after a tasting.
Golden hour
A drink at the right time
The sun goes down just before nine in June and a little after seven by the end of September. Aim to be sitting down forty minutes before, because the build is better than the moment.
Jaguar
Old PortWhere we tend to start, along the front from the steps up to the old town. Tables out on the water, the fishing boats in front of you, and no rush about any of it.
Get there around seven. The good tables go first and the light is better before the crowd arrives.
Ginfish
Old PortGin led, with a clean view across to the Bourtzi and the islets. The best sundowner in town if you want a proper drink.
BU at the Bourtzi
Bourtzi peninsulaA cafe bar out on the pine covered fortress headland, water on both sides. Coffee in the morning, a drink before dinner.
One thing worth knowing when you pick a table. The new port faces east and misses the sunset entirely. The old port, the Bourtzi and anything on the west side get all of it.
After midnight
If the group wants a big night
Not everyone comes to Skiathos for this, and if that is you then skip the section. But we get asked about it often enough by stag groups, hen groups and anyone travelling with people in their twenties that it is worth writing down properly.
All of it happens on one stretch of waterfront, past the Old Port on the road out towards the new port and the airport. Three clubs sit more or less next to each other, so you do not need to plan a route. You walk along the front, look at which doorway is busy, and go in.
Beach Bar Club, open in one form or another since 1978 and still the biggest room on the island. Open air, the sea on one side, guest DJs through July and August.
Kahlua
Next door to BBCThe oldest club on the waterfront and the most reliable of the three. Open air dance floor, mainstream and Greek, and it fills earlier than the others.
The dressier one, house and electronic, and the one that books the bigger visiting names. Worth checking who is on before you pick your night.
The timings are not what you think
Nothing fills before one in the morning and the good hour is closer to three. If you turn up at eleven you will be standing in an empty room paying club prices. Eat late, drink at the Old Port first, and walk along after midnight.
Sort the way home first
The island has a small taxi fleet and at four in the morning in August it is completely stretched. Take the driver’s number on the way in, or agree a pickup before you go out. The walk back into town is fine. The drive out to the villas is not one to leave to chance.
This is a July and August thing
The clubs run properly for about ten weeks. In June they are open but quiet, and by late September most of it has wound down. If the big night out is the point of the trip, come in high season.
One honest word. Our villas are fifteen to twenty minutes out in the hills, which is exactly right if you want the night out and then quiet when you get back. It is the wrong choice if you want to fall out of a club and into bed. If that is the holiday, stay in town.
The water
Beaches worth the drive
There are more than sixty. You will not run out. These six cover every mood a week needs.
Kechria
Ten minutes from the villasA quiet bay with pine forest running down to the water and rarely more than thirty people on it. The water drops away quickly, so it suits confident swimmers.
Grey sand underneath the abandoned medieval capital, with some of the clearest water on the island. Reached on foot down the trail or by boat.
The walk is uneven and has almost no shade. Go before ten or after five, and take a litre of water each.
Agia Eleni
West coastThe one beach that faces the sunset properly. Sandy, with a beach bar at one end, and worth staying on for the last hour of light.
Koukounaries
South west cornerFamous, busy, and still genuinely beautiful, with the pine forest running right down to the sand. Come before ten and it is yours.
Krifi Ammos
Twelve minute walk from the roadA small cove you reach on a marked path through the trees, with a summer cantina for a frappe and a toasted sandwich.
The last fifty metres are loose stones. Wear trainers, not flip flops.
Lalaria
Boat only, from the Old PortWhite marble pebbles, pale cliffs and the Tripia Petra rock arch. There is no road, and no shade, water or toilets when you get there.
Boats leave the Old Port and take about thirty to forty minutes, usually stopping at the sea caves. Taking the white stones home is illegal.
Timing
When to come
People will tell you there is one right month for Skiathos. There is not. The island is good from spring through to late autumn, and each part of the season gives you something the others cannot.
The season now runs close to six months, from late March through to the end of October, and the shops, tavernas and boats stay open around it. Airlines added a lot of capacity either side of the summer for 2026, so the quieter months are no longer the compromise they once were. Pick the one that matches the holiday you want.
April and May
The island at its greenest, before the heat arrives. Wildflowers through the olive groves, walking weather that is genuinely comfortable, and trails and viewpoints all to yourself. The sea is still fresh in April and warming nicely by the end of May, so this is the time to come if you want the island more than the swimming. It is also the quietest the roads and restaurants ever are.
June
The longest days of the year, with light until nearly nine and the sea properly warm. Everything is open and running, and the beaches have space on them. A good choice if you want full summer without the school holiday crowds.
July and August
High summer, and the island at its most alive. Warm nights, boat trips going out every day, the beach bars and the old port at full tilt, festivals and the August wine festival. This is the one for a big group, for teenagers, and for anyone who wants the holiday to feel like a holiday. Book the villa and the car early, and start your beach days before ten.
September
The warmest sea of the whole year, because the water holds the summer long after the air has let go. Early September still has the energy of August, later September softens into long, easy days. Many people who try it once stop coming at any other time.
October
Still swimmable, still warm in the afternoons, and beautiful in a different way as the light goes golden and the olive harvest begins. It lines up with half term, the island is calm, and it is the best value of the year. Bring a layer for the evenings.
If you are choosing between two dates and cannot decide, write to us. We will tell you honestly what each week is likely to be like, including when the answer is that it will be busy.
The base
Where to stay
Where you sleep decides how the week feels more than anything else on this page.
The south coast is convenient and busy. The hills above the north west coast are quiet, green and about fifteen to twenty minutes from both the town and the airport.
That is where our two villas are, in Kechria, set in pine forest with the sea in front of them. Each has three bedrooms, a private pool and a kitchen you will actually use. Kechria beach and Tarsanas are ten minutes down the hill, and the walking trails start behind the house.
We have hosted more than five hundred guests here since 2019, and most of this guide came from them.
If you want more detail